5 Performances That Sucked...
5. Mickey Hargitay - The Jayne Mansfield Story (1980)
In the gap between being discovered in Pumping Iron and Stay Hungry, and making it big in Conan The Barbarian, Arnie made a couple of forgettable, and probably regrettable films, including playing his best named character of all, Handsome Stranger in cowboy parody The Villain. But the worst choice of the lot (obviously in hindsight - at the time, he had to somehow finance the many, many eggs he was probably eating every day) was this TV movie directed by the TV movie world's answer to Ed Wood, Dick Lowry. Playing Mansfield's husband Mickey Hargitay, Arnie was probably perfectly cast, given that Hargitay was a former Mr Universe wining body builder from Hungary ("close enough," they probably said) but that doesn't hide the fact that the film is dog-awful, and Arnie isn't cut out for the fairly challenging role. The creative liberties taken are somewhat derailing, with details changed for entertainment and key events skipped entirely, which might be forgivable if the result was an improvement, but the reality is a poor biopic, which could be the epitome of why "made-for-TV" is counted as an insult in some quarters.